Grand Prairie
November 1, 2025 🦃
The month of October has introduced new themes as well as a new season—fall. We talked about the leaves changing colors, apples, trees, squirrels and pumpkins. Community helpers were introduced at the beginning of the month, and the students enjoyed learning about teachers, firefighters, mailmen, farmers, etc.… In the Early Childhood classroom, students pretended to go apple picking with our fake apple tree in the classroom and introduced ORANGE as our color of the month. Students have been introduced to different toy items that are the color orange (e.g., marker, carrot, orange, etc....) At home, playing with the leaves outside can be a fun way to increase language skills. For instance, when jumping or playing in the leaves you can grab different sizes or colors and talk about how the leaves are different. Also, create large or small piles of leaves and describe the piles (e.g., BIG pile, CRUNCHY leaves).
Welcome to the 2026 Illinois Monarch Award Program! The Monarch nominees are a collection of books selected by the Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE) for readers in grades K-3. Each year, AISLE selects 20 books and invites children from across the state to read the selected children’s books. The award is named in honor of Illinois’ state insect, the Monarch butterfly. The butterfly symbolizes growth, freedom, and change – qualities that also characterize the emergent reader.
Thank you to the Education Foundation for funding this amazing program at Grand Prairie!
Students will listen to some of the Monarch nominees in the coming months. Students in grades K-2 will hear at least five of these books during their library time. In mid-March, students will vote for their favorite. Their votes will then be added to the votes of other children throughout the state to determine the winning book.
You can keep track of the books your child has read by checking off the books on the bookmark he/she received during library. If your child completes the Monarch Book Challenge by reading all 20 of the books, he/she may return the bookmark to the Grand Prairie Library and choose a book from our prize book collection to keep!
Please sign or initial the top of the completed bookmark before your child returns it to school. Thank you!
Happy reading!
Mrs. Cunningham
